Looking Back At It, Miss Ellie Was Very Selfish.

[Billy Wall]

I'm not gonna get too much into her "marrying Jock to save her families ranch", but to say to Jock "Bobby will stay if you don't do anything to drive him off. If he leaves, I'll never forgive you." Is she kidding? Jock told her right, "what about JR? While Bobby was sowing his Oates, JR was in the fields." Sue Ellen was getting to be unbearable after her and JR got back together after he recovered from being shot, but maybe she had a point when she told Miss Ellie that she was taking Bobby's side over JR.

Jock was no saint, heck, he cheated on her, but during the course of Dallas, Miss Ellie could be totally unfair to Jock.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Well, Jock only cheated on Miss Ellie once -- during war no less. It's true she married Jock to save the ranch, but a lot of women (maybe most?) marry men for the resources or potential resources. Some feel Jock loved Ellie more than she did him, but that's most hetero relationships; I'm not sure Jock deserved better, the reprobate.

BBG joked that she'd had a hard time working up tears over the idea that her 30-year-old son was moving out of the house, but Miss Ellie's trauma over how Gary was treated was still raw.

Yes, JR had enlarged the family fortune, but his behavior was probably hard to ignore.

But it's an old argument: should JR have been treated better? It's hard to believe he should've been, but naturally he felt the answer was "yes." Sue Ellen's opinions fluctuated based on how well she was getting along with JR at any given moment. And of all the Southfork ladies, only Donna -- already rich by her first marriage -- married (to Ray) for the money.

If Ellie was occasionally unfair to Jock, it's hard to care all that much.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Miss Ellie had the sense of entitlement that came with growing up as heiress of a prominent ranch (Southfork was supposed to be a *big deal*, especially in her youth — which they didn’t do a great job of getting across a lot of the time, when it seemed more like Ray and a pickup truck and a handful of cows than Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone) who went on to marry an enormously wealthy and powerful oil baron, who was just coming into his period of success.

She had the breeding and class, and a fairly palpable sense of superiority at times, and Jock had the money and power and intimidating nature. Even Sam Culver seemed to defer to her in status, and it didn’t seem like wholly a political act or a southern gentleman thing.

It made all the sense in the world that she’d call up the head of transportation of the state of Texas and order him to put all his resources on finding her sons’ plane, or that she’d be shocked that Harv Smithfield wouldn’t break Jock’s will on her command.

 

[Laurie Marr]

BBG could frequently summon up that sense of entitlement Ellie had when she was cornered. She married beneath her and oftentimes you’d get a glimpse of that.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

BBG could frequently summon up that sense of entitlement Ellie had when she was cornered. She married beneath her and oftentimes you’d get a glimpse of that.

I feel that’s a key to how she somehow made the “Texas Matriarch with a non-working-class East Coast accent” juxtaposition work. She sounded like someone who’d gone away to prep school, or maybe had a stint at an upscale East Coast college, and ironed all the twang out of her speech in the process.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

This isn't really pertaining to the overall point at hand, well it is, and it isn't. Was Miss Ellie being unfair to J.R. and Jock, after J.R. was shot, and the Bobster was on his power kick and high horse? Perhaps, I mean, my first inclination was to say, hell yeah, but then I thought about how J.R. had mortgaged Southfork the season before.. All the stuff Ellie didn't even know about, pertaining to the Red file, and section 40. J.R. was kind of, just briefly, reaping what he had sowed here, in my opinion.

Now, was she pushing for Bobby to stay on as president because of J.R's shady dealings..most likely, these weren't the things on her mind. She didn't want to lose another son. However, we also can't just ignore the fact that J.R. did something that impacted Miss Ellie so much, pertaining to her home.

That said, I do think, given all the work J.R. put into Ewing Oil, under Jock as an understudy, then by his side, then on his own, Miss Ellie was kinda being selfish,here. I get the not wanting to lose another son angle, but..J.R. was her son, too.

I don't know..this whole thing kinda has me torn. For a woman that didn't want anyone to say boo to Jock after his heart surgery, she certainly put him through the wringer here. Laugh. This is tough too, though because you figure..she has since found out about an unknown first wife, and is in the process of finding out that Ray is the product of an affair she did know about..I dunno. At the end of the day, while she was putting Jock through hell here, maybe the scale balances out more than what it seems.